Liberals and Conservatives in America differ greatly in their core beliefs and nowhere is this more starkly highlighted than in their views of why their respective enemies are wrong.
The Liberals deride their enemies, by and large, as being ignorant and easily mislead; Conservative, by and large, claim that their enemies are evil.
I find it a very interesting dichotomy of outlooks.
The reasons and motives that Liberals and Conservatives in America ascribe to each others’ actions is, so far as I can see, nothing but a “high-proof” distillation of their respective worldviews.
The Liberals
In most cases the Liberals seem to believe that little or nothing that anyone could do that they consider as anti-social or contrary to their Liberal values is that person’s fault because they don’t seem to believe that it was a matter of choice.
When Liberals encounter someone who behaves or believes is manner that they find wrong the Liberals tend not to blame the person in question. They tend to shift the blame to society as a whole. It’s not the person’s fault; they’re not fully accountable for their behavior or actions because they weren’t properly educated, weren’t provided with successful results, and other such things.
The Conservatives
In most cases the Conservative seem to believe that nearly anything or everything that anyone could do that they consider as anti-social or contrary to their Conservative values is that person’s fault because they don’t seem to believe that it was anything other than a matter of choice.
When Conservatives encounter someone who behaves or believes is manner that they find wrong they tend to believe that the person has willfully chosen to be like that. Society and circumstance are rarely blamed due to the Conservatives’ belief that people of good character can and will overcome any obstacles put in their paths.
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In the course of political discourse in America the rhetoric of these two views devolve into condescension from the Liberals and vitriol from Conservatives.
The Liberals deride the Conservatives as ignorant, stupid, or mentally damaged and seek to re-educate them into Liberal views, and the Conservatives deride the Liberals as evil people who have chosen to believe and act as they do and who are likely not amenable to conversion.
Such will likely continue until one side or the other is destroyed and consigned to history because the forms these arguments take is nothing but a distillation of the core beliefs of the two sides.
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Tags: America | Conservatives | Education | Ethics & Morality | Evil | Ignorance | Intelligence | Liberals | Philosophy | Politics | Society | Stupidity
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 4th, 2010 at 8:59 am and is filed under Politics, Society.
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